Festus Keyamo, minister of state, labour, and productivity and spokesman for the APC presidential campaign, has claimed that he was glad to appear foolish while supporting his party’s nominee, Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Senator Dino Melaya’s counterpart in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Keyamo, responded by saying that only a genius appears foolish when doing morally.
The minister claimed that his party, the APC, has the best presidential candidate to market to Nigeria. He added that it was incorrect to believe that among the other prominent candidates for the 2023 presidential election, Tinubu was the most challenging to market.
I have stated on various forums that Asiwaju is the most accessible candidate. On the surface, they simply wondered, “Is this guy kidding? Is he crazy? It will be evident that no one is connected to Asiwaju by the time we start laying out the documents, the facts, and the numbers.
“Because, really, it is about what you have done. Governance is not for motivational speakers. Governance is not for smooth talkers. Most smooth talkers are the 419 people,who talk their ways into power. I am sorry, governance is not about that. Governance is about records. Motivational speaking is different from governance. What have they done? People say you can’t campaign for Asiwaju without looking stupid. I have heard such comment and I love that comment a lot.
“You know why I love that comment that you can’t look stupid? Because only geniuses look stupid. The Newtons of this world looked stupid. The Alexander Bell looked stupid, when he talked about inventing the telephone. When the Wright brothers said they needed to invent something that will fly on the air, they said they were sick. Then, these ideas were unthinkable to many. It’s only geniuses that appear so stupid to ordinary people.
“So we are proud to look stupid. To campaign for a genius who appears stupid to everybody now,” he said, citing how Tinubu transformed Lagos to a model and economy hob in the whole of West Africa region.
“Over the years before Asiwaju came, there was a Bar Beach in Lagos that became a living hell to everyone living on Victoria Island every raining season. Before Asiwaju, government upon government bring down all kinds of stones and materials to stop the waters from taking over the area.
“But Asiwaju came and said, I want to build a city on this water. But he sounded stupid to everyone. That is the ingenuity of Asiwaju. He did not only contain the water, he turned it to the best city in Lagos and that is the Eko Atlantics we have today. I am very proud to be associated with that kind of ‘stupid man’ as they described him.
“When we are saying Atiku is not hundred miles near Asiwaju, you first of all think this is a stupid statement that Keyamo is making. But on a second thought, this is true because Atiku has not been a position to make critical decisions. He has not! He was only given power to go and implement decisions already taken by his boss.
“And even that small task they gave to him, turned out to be a disaster. I am not trying to run him down. ASCON was sold at the most ridiculous price ever. I am sorry, this is an issue-based campaign, I am not using abusive words.
“I am addressing issues and I said Atiku cannot come close to Asiwaju. That is the man that changed the equation of the political calculation of the entire country today. By today, it would have been a one party system, only the PDP.”
